5thhorseman wrote: ↑Fri Dec 20, 2024 6:46 am
To be honest, it's a good thing this is happening as spending is out of control and it's not going to be fixed without some upheaval. We need a shakeup. Hopefully this spreads to Canada as well.
However, I don't think they're actually going to be able to fix the problem without cutting military spending and/or entitlements.
Excessive spending and ballooning debt has always been my number one election issue.
They're going the wrong way about it though. This constant insecurity surrounding whether the US government will honour its debts or not hurts the US economy. US government bonds used to be the gold standard, but these constant clown shows has meant that they no longer get a triple A rating from two of the three major rating companies. US debt is now instead rated AA+, which means borrowing gets more expensive for them than for the more stable Triple A nations like Canada, Germany and Sweden.
Sweden instead has a rule that only a balanced budget can pass. Thus if you want to increase spending you have to raise taxes, and if you want to lower taxes, you have to decrease spending. Works like a charm. Of course, things may happen in a year that throws you off, but at least you have to plan for not spending more than you have.
Edit: I forgot to mention, if the budget doesn't pass, the government must resign. If parliament cannot agree on a new prime minister, new elections must be held. So there is a pretty good incentive to make sure that a) the budget is balanced and b) you have the votes you need, before you present the budget.
Btw, the map shows the Standard and Poor's ratings (Canada AAA, USA AA+, France AA, China A+, the Saudis A, and so on). Of the other two major rating companies, Fitch has both Canada and the USA at AA+ and Moody's has both Canada and the USA at AAA. Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland are the only eight countries to recieve a triple A rating from all three. But Canada gets it from two out of three, which according to Meatloaf ain't bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... dit_rating
‘the smaller Aegean islands’ means any islands in the Aegean Sea except the islands of Crete and Evia.